Sale booked a Premiership play-off place and kept their hopes of a home semi-final alive after a 22-12 victory over league leaders Bristol on Friday. Scoreless at the break, Bristol's Ben Earl crossed for the first try on 45 minutes. But it was Sale who dominated the rest of the match, crossing the whitewash via the Du Preez brothers, Dan and Rob, and hooker Curtis Langdon to secure the win, despite Ioan Lloyd's late response for Pat Lam's team. Friday's second game saw Gloucester edge London Irish 30-28 thanks to a last-minute 40-metre penalty from fly-half Billy Twelvetrees. Tries from Santiago Carreras, Willi Heinz, Kyle Moyle and Louis Rees-Zammit earned Gloucester an additional bonus point with Twelvetrees adding two conversions and two penalties. Curtis Rona, Will Goodrick-Clarke and Albert Tuisue scored tries for Irish with Paddy Jackson kicking three penalties and two conversion. bur/lp/td